The life of Steelers defensive end Aaron Smith took a terrifying turn last October when his 4-year-old son was diagnosed with leukemia.

Elijah Smith, however, is doing well and continues to triumph over the disease, his father said Saturday.

"You wouldn't know he had leukemia if you talked to him," said Smith, who called home to check on his son in between the two practices the Steelers held Saturday. "He's a cheerful, happy boy. If he wasn't bald you probably wouldn't even know he's in chemo."

Elijah Smith, who is now 5, has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which is cancer of the white blood cells.

He did well enough in early treatments that doctors allowed him to travel to Tampa with the rest of the Smith family in February to watch his father play in the Super Bowl.

Smith said Elijah has made "unbelievable" progress since that point.

Smith didn't miss a game last season despite all that happened, and he was a finalist for the 2008 George S. Halas Courage Award. The award is given by the Pro Football Writers Association to a coach or player that performed well on the field after overcoming adversity off it.

"We've been very blessed with how things have gone," Smith said, "because there's families that have had a much harder time to this point."
Talent pool

The piece of paper that is taped to a cooler in the Steelers' locker room tracks wins and losses. The marks on it are a clear indication the players are getting plenty of use out of the new pool table in the team's South Side facility.

The Steelers had a pool table in their locker room when they practiced at the University of South Florida prior to Super Bowl XLIII.

Now this is the best news ever..! Keep up the fight, little guy! All of your Steelers aunties and uncles are praying for you!

__________________"We're not going to turn our backs on him," Ward said. "We're going to treat him like our brother. We're going to accept him back and be very supportive of him and help him get through this. In this locker room, he's still our quarterback."